Most every household and office utilizes trash receptacles to contain discarded refuse therein. Recently, based primarily on the desire to recycle certain types of refuse, manufacturers of trash containers have directed their attention to providing some type of means by which the trash can be segregated by type or size. Most simply, some manufacturers merely color code conventional trash containers thereby urging or prompting the user to place certain types of trash in certain colored containers.
Other manufacturers have designed specially configured containers or bins to promote the recycle effort. Such containers, while too often multi-colored, are usually designed to stack on each other to present a vertical array of multiple containers. While such designs certainly do save floor space, the tipping stability of some of the designs is quite suspect. Moreover, the access openings to the stacked containers is not only limited, but also is generally incapable of being closed with a cover.
If the household container, whether intended for recycle or not, is provided with a cover, usually it is of the type which can be swung, either manually or by a foot pedal, to either a fully open or fully closed position. Such thus requires some activity on the part of the user to expose the inside of the container to receive the refuse.
Some modern containers are provided with lids known as a swing top cover which normally totally close the container but which, when rotated by hand or under the influence of the weight of the refuse, swing out of the way to permit the refuse to drop into the container. While these covers are acceptable alternatives to those which are merely rotated on hinges from either a fully open to a fully closed position, they are more costly to manufacture and assemble than most refuse container covers and are susceptible to problems in that they will tend to fail to fully close as the container becomes full of refuse, that is, the refuse impedes the swinging return to the fully closed position.
Thus, there is not only a need for a special system of containers for segregating refuse, but also there is a continuing need for conveniently usable covers for household waste receptacles.